Eurostat estimates that in 2015 carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion increased by 0.7% in the European Union (EU), compared with the previous year. —European Commission, 3 May 2016

Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions increased by an estimated 10 million tonnes from 2014 to 2015, in a blow to the country’s claims to climate leadership. A 2011 decision to phase out nuclear power within a decade has seen dirty coal maintain a significant share of the energy mix. As a result, progress on emissions has slowed. A decrease in 2011 was followed by increases in 2012 and 2013. –Megan Darby, Climate Home, 14 Match 2016

According to the Institute of German Business (IW) the cost of Germany’s once highly touted “Energiewende” (transition to green energy) will soar to a whopping ‚Ç¨31 billion ($35 billion) in 2016 alone, thus further burdening the already ailing German consumerThe Energiewende is morphing into a central planning folly of the scale matched only by the Venezuelan Chavez communists. –Pierre Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, 3 May 2016

Germany paid wind farms $548 million to switch off last year to prevent damage to the country’s electricity grid, according to a Thursday article in the German newspaper Wirtschaftswoche. Germany’s wind and solar power systems have provided too much power at unpredictable times, which damaged the power grid and made the system vulnerable to blackouts. To fix the problem, grid operators paid companies $548 million to shut their turbines down, according to a survey by Wirtschaftswoche of Germany’s largest power companies. –Andrew Follett, The Daily Caller, 29 April 2016

Energy matters to economic growth and general prosperity, but to what degree? Over the last thirty years a new view of the English ‘Industrial Revolution’ is beginning to take shape that suggests it matters much more than is allowed for in mainstream economics, a development that gives further reason for concern about global attempts to reduce emissions through the adoption of renewable energy. –John Constable, Global Warming Policy Forum, 1 May 2016